Break Van
Break Van, retitled Donald and Douglas in American releases, is the sixteenth episode of the second season. It aired in the US on the Shining Time Station episode, Sweet and Sour in 1991. In this episode, a spiteful brakevan causes grief for Donald and Douglas. Plot Donald and Douglas are twin engines from Scotland who arrive on the Island of Sodor to help out, however the Fat Controller had only sent for one engine. While the twins mean well, their identical appearance causes confusion and the Fat Controller has numbers painted on them; Donald is 9, while Douglas is 10. However the Fat Controller still intends to send one of the engines back home. In the yard, a Spiteful Brakevan takes a dislike to Douglas and does his best to make things go wrong whenever Douglas takes it out. As a result, Douglas' trains are late causing him to get a bad reputation. Donald is angry at his twin's unfair treatment and bumps the brakevan hard before threatening it. The brakevan starts behaving better after that. However things start to go wrong when Donald travels along some slippery lines and crashes into a signalbox. The Fat Controller is very angry at Donald and informs him that he had decided to keep him and send Douglas back before this incident. Now Donald needs to have his tender mended and James will have to do his work, which the Fat Controller knows James won't like. The Fat Controller is right and James is very grumpy about the extra work. Douglas jokes about James' incident with the tar wagons, making him angrier. He takes a train of trucks which includes the spiteful brakevan, who decides to make life difficult for James and has the trucks hold back, quickly tiring James out. Meeting Douglas, James asks for help climbing Gordon's Hill and the Scottish engine agrees. Douglas and James work as hard as they can to climb the hill, however Douglas pushes too hard and accidentally destroys the spiteful brakevan. The Fat Controller arrives with Edward and is angry that Douglas has caused even more trouble. Edward stands up for Douglas, having heard what happened and tells the Fat Controller of all the hard work Douglas did. The Fat Controller feels that Douglas went too far, but understands Douglas had good intentions and was only trying his best. The Fat Controller is left unsure about what to do with Donald and Douglas. Characters *Edward *James *Sir Topham Hatt *Donald and Douglas (debut) *The Spiteful Brakevan (debut) *Thomas (cameo) *Henry (cameo) *Gordon (cameo) Locations *Tidmouth *Tidmouth Sheds *Ffarquhar Sheds *Gordon's Hill *Wellsworth *Suddery Castle *The Coaling Plant Notes *This episode is based on the story of the same name from The Railway Series book, The Twin Engines. *A Lego brick can be seen beside the tracks when James and Douglas leave the station. *In Norway, this episode is called "The Challenging Truck". The Italian tile is "The Twin Locomotives". In Dutch this episode is called "The Caboose". In Japan, this episode is called "The Twin Engines". The Croatian title is "Broken Freight Wagons". The German title is "The Braking Distances". It is called "Trailer Brake" in Finland. The Spanish title is "Donald and Douglas". The Brazilian title is "The Twins Scots". *In PBS Sprout airings of this episode, the term "shut up" was cut out due to censorship issues. *When originally broadcasted, compiled with Better Late Than Never, the end credits mentioned Christopher Awdry's episode, though later separate versions (most notably on VHS and Cartoon Network) still had the episode listed in the end credits. *The first season episode, Dirty Objects was referenced. Errors *At the beginning, blu-tak was used to hold Donald's face. *In the widescreen of the first shot, Douglas' number has been painted on. *When Donald says "It's to leave you behind I'd be wanting", the flatbed beside him has been replaced by a platform. *When Donald bumps the Spiteful Brakevan, the sound of him bumping him is late by a second. *The "M" is partly rubbed off on the sign on the signalbox that Donald crashes into. *When James leaves the yard the van coupled to him tips. *Ringo Starr doesn't use a Scottish accent when Douglas says "We'll show them". *When Donald approaches the spiteful brakevan his lamp iron disappears. *It's unknown how Douglas got to Wellsworth before James. *A censor bar was seen covering Douglas' nameplate after he crushes the brakevan, then in the aftermath his nameplate was shown. In the restored version, Douglas' nameplate was shown as he crushes the brakevan. *When James leaves the yard, Gordon's eyes are crossed. *The spiteful brakevan turns brown after Douglas crushes him. *When Douglas crushes the brakevan, his wheels are bluish-grey. This is due to the fluid in the model that generates the smoke effects. An extended shot shown in a postcard shows that not only are his tender axleboxes in the same bluish-grey, but his driver's head was also backwards. *When Ringo Starr says "things always went wrong when he had to take it out," his voice cracks. *In a deleted photograph, Douglas' face was loose when he's coupled behind the brakevan. *Douglas was smiling when he breaks the Spiteful Brakevan and when the Fat Controller speaks angrily to him. *When the Fat Controller says "I don't know...", Douglas' face mask moves. *When the Fat Controller says "I might have known it would be Douglas", Douglas' face was clean and his nameplate was fine, but when Edward says "I heard him from my yard", his face becomes dirty and his nameplate was crooked and crushed. *The Spiteful Brakevan doesn't have a face when James passes Suddery Castle. US Home Video Releases *Thomas, Percy and the Dragon and Other Stories *Thomas and His Friends Help Out Transcript Gallery BreakvanUKtitlecard.jpg|1987 UK title card Breakvanrestoredtitlecard.png|Restored UK title card DonaldandDouglasUStitlecard.png|Original 1993 US title card DonaldandDouglastitlecard.png|1996 US title card DonaldandDouglasUStitlecard2.png|Remastered US title card BreakVanSpanishTitleCard.jpg|Spanish Title Card BreakVanKoreanTitleCard.png|Korean Title Card BreakVanFinnishTitleCard.png|Finnish title card BreakVanJapaneseTitleCard.png|Japanese title card BreakVan.jpg|Deleted scene BreakVan1.png BreakVan2.png BreakVan3.png BreakVan4.png BreakVan5.png BreakVan6.png BreakVan7.png BreakVan8.png BreakVan9.png BreakVan10.png BreakVan11.png BreakVan12.png BreakVan13.png BreakVan14.png BreakVan15.png BreakVan16.png BreakVan16.jpg BreakVan17.png BreakVan18.png BreakVan19.png BreakVan20.png BreakVan21.png BreakVan22.png|The Spiteful Breakvan BreakVan23.png BreakVan24.png BreakVan25.png BreakVan26.png BreakVan27.png BreakVan28.png BreakVan29.png BreakVan30.png BreakVan31.png BreakVan32.png BreakVan33.png BreakVan34.png BreakVan35.png BreakVan36.png BreakVan37.png BreakVan38.png BreakVan39.png BreakVan40.jpg BreakVan41.jpg BreakVan41.png BreakVan42.jpg BreakVan43.jpg BreakVan43.png BreakVan44.png BreakVan45.png BreakVan46.png BreakVan47.png BreakVan48.png BreakVan49.png BreakVan50.png BreakVan51.png BreakVan52.png BreakVan53.png BreakVan54.png BreakVan55.png BreakVan56.png BreakVan57.png BreakVan58.png BreakVan59.jpg BreakVan60.jpg BreakVan61.jpg BreakVan62.png Category:Season 2 episodes Category:Episodes Category:Thomas and Friends episodes Category:1986 television episodes Category:1980s television episodes